Labour’s decision to slash foreign aid budgets could put the UK at risk of deadly diseases arriving on our shores, critics say. Experts are worried about cuts to vaccination programmes funded by the UK which control the spread of diseases such as Ebola and monkeypox.
Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to cut the UK aid budget from 0.5% of national income to 0.3% will reduce spending by £6bn. The Prime Minister said the measure was needed to help fund an increase in defence spending. Reform UK activist and political commentator Tim Montgomerie said: “Yes, the government has tough choices to make — but one thing is clear: the British public doesn’t want to see health threats spiral out of control, whether at home or abroad. People understand that if we turn our backs on disease prevention elsewhere, we’re inviting the problem to our own doorstep. Ministers need to listen — this isn’t just about aid, it’s about common sense public health.”
Professor Timothy Hallett, Associate Director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London said: “We’ve made extraordinary progress in tackling diseases like HIV, malaria, and TB — progress that’s saved millions of lives and stabilised entire health systems. But that progress is fragile.
“Cutting aid to vaccine and prevention programmes now threatens to unravel decades of work and risks a resurgence of diseases we were close to controlling. This is not the moment to step back.”
New polling found 50 per cent of Reform voters think vaccinating children against diseases like Ebola and Malaria should continue to be funded despite wider aid cuts.
Three in five Britons a a whole, 60 per cent, said child vaccination programmes should be protected from cuts following the reduction in the UK’s aid budget.
And three in four Labour voters, 74 per cent, said that the government’s commitment to global vaccines budgets (Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance) should not be cut, while 70% of Labour voters said the government’s commitment to the Global Fund tackling HIV, Malaria and TB should not be cut.
A recent focus group of Labour-Reform UK swing voters conducted by More in Common in Wolverhampton South East found strong support for government prioritising vaccine investment post cuts. The focus group was conducted with those who voted Labour at the last election but would now vote Reform in Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden MP’s constituency.
Trevor, Facilities Manager from Wolverhampton said: “If the foreign aid bill was to be used in a positive way, you wouldn’t mind it, would you? I mean, if they came out tomorrow and said, we’re going to take the foreign aid bill and we’re going to use it to send vaccines to the commonwealth countries that we provide foreign aid to, then you go, brilliant. Protecting yourself at the end of it as well, aren’t you?”
Conleth Burns, Associate Director at More in Common says: “Having spoken to voters in Wolverhampton about what the government should and shouldn’t prioritise in the reduced aid budget in the spending, it’s not surprising that there’s strong support across the board for protecting vaccine improvements. For these voters, investments in vaccines helped keep infectious diseases out of Britain, had a clear track record and they felt represented good value for money for British taxpayers.”